Shine your shingle

Since Ryan has been unemployed, I have been thinking about how I can help the family with income we need, other than some babysitting I do.

He suggested shining my shingle (shining your what?). That's right, my shingle. You see, I am not this simple ponytailed homeschool soccer mom you know and love. Underneath this mild-mannered exterior, I exist in an alternate plane. That's right, folks...I am grammar girl. Okay, so I'm not really "grammar girl". Go ahead, google her. Her cartoon personna does have glasses and a dark-haired ponytail. She can accurately explain how to use "however" with a semicolon! She knows why a preposition is something you should never end a sentence with. (oops! yes, "with" is a preposition and yes, I was intentional. Sheesh!)

Still, while I am not "grammar girl", I do have a God-given passion for English grammar, writing, spelling, and yes, editing. I love it that Ryan is in school and he regularly asks me to go over his papers. I even had the opporturniy to help one of his classmates daughter with a high school research paper. Ahh, students... He has noticed my red-ink giddiness. He suggested I think about getting back into tutoring. Yes, actually shining the shingle and hanging it up again.

So I am thinking and praying about it. I recently caught a radio sermon on "work" and how society at large seems to regard it as a "means to an end". It "pays the bills" or funds our weekend excursions. He reminded his audience that this was not God's intention for work. He challenged me to think of "work" as an act of "worship". Worship that brings glory to God. Paying the bills, while important, is a side benefit. God wants us to not only pay our bills, but to be generous, to be overwhelmingly grateful for the opportunity to worship through our work. How do I communicate this to my kids when I sigh at the state of my kitchen, or complain that the laundry is NEVER done? My "this house is a mess" comments really don't help them regard work as worship.

Back to the shingle. (I do get off on tangents, don't it? Is there a verb form for that? Tangentizing, maybe? Oops, I'm doing it again. Yes, I did that on purpose). When and if my shingle goes up, it's not my shingle. It's God's. It's those gifts and talents (yes, spelling is a gift) that God has given me to USE with HARD WORK for HIS GLORY. So, I leave you with the verse I used to have my students write on the front of their folders, "WHATEVER YOU DO, WORK AT IT WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART, AS THOUGH WORKING FOR GOD AND NOT MAN." Colossians 3:23